Hares, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and many, many birds,
peopled the forest and swamp. In sunken places where the green
water stood and steamed in the sun, turtles and frogs were
plentiful; and occasionally a snake, as harmless as it was
wicked looking, slid off a water-soaked log at Nan's approach
and slipped under the oily surface of the pool.
On the day Nan walked to Toby's place the first time, she saw
many wonders of plant life along the way, exotics clinging to
rotten logs and stumps; fronds of delicate vines that she had
never before heard of; ferns of exquisite beauty. And flashing
over them, and sucking honey from every cuplike flower, were
shimmering humming-birds and marvelously marked butterflies.
The birds screamed or sang or chattered over the girl's head as
she tripped along. Squirrels peeped at her, barked, and then
whisked their tails in rapid flight. Through the cool, dark
depths where the forest monarchs had been untouched by the
woodsmen, great moths winged their lazy flight. Nan knew not
half of the creatures or the wonderful plants she saw.
There were sounds in the deeps of the swamplands that she did not
recognize, either. Some she supposed must be the voices of huge
frogs; other notes were bird-calls that she had never heard
before.
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